Business Projectors

The business projectors category includes the latest technology in DLP, LCD, LCoS projectors.  The category includes projectors from lightweight portables to projectors with 10,000+ lumens.  The gallery is showing a wide range of projectors that have been reviewed in the past two years or so.

Business projectors are typically used in conference room presentations, interactive advertising, sales, and market analysis.

That said, most of you are  looking for a high-performance, high brightness business projector for your lecture hall, board room, hotel ballroom or auditorium, or even an interactive advertising display. A good business projector meets the criteria of the applications it will be used for, as well as the ambient lighting conditions of the room. Recently WUXGA and 1080p business projectors have gained significant market share  now that they are far more affordable, starting as low as $600.

Business Projectors

About Business Projectors

There are many brands out there, although not all build their own product, in fact many simply relabel their product from other original manufacturers or make very minor changes, and sell the products under their own names. Here is a short list of the top selling brands that actually design and build their projectors, it is not a complete list.   Who is number one varies depending on the questions asked, although Epson currently claims the largest market share worldwide. These are some of the  leaders:

• Barco Projectors – This is the “heavy metal”  medium to huge venue projectors, mostly 8000 to 100,000 lumens. Purchased projection design, expanding their line downward somewhat in price
• Epson Projectors – LCD projectors only as they are the primary manufacturer of the 3LCD chips. Largest seller of projectors in the world, and currently (2017) with 53% of the North American market.
• Mitsubishi Projectors – Once a mix of LCD and DLP projectors, one of the larget lineups in the industry, they quit the projector industry late 2013, and also stopped making “Big Screen TVs.”
• Hitachi Projectors – LCD projectors primarily, one of the early leaders in ultrashort throw projectors and especially interactive ones. A major player in the K-12 education space.
• InFocus Projectors – Primarily DLP projectors, always a leader in lightest and brightest projectors (no pico projectors), a full line-up
• BenQ Projectors – All DLP projectors, have expanded their lineup to from entry level to larger venue projectors
• Sanyo Projectors – Sanyo projectors disappeared when Sanyo was purchased by Matsushita, Panasonic’s parent.
• Panasonic Projectors – A major player with LCD and DLP projectors.  They have shifted their focus away from entry level and very portable to medium and large venue projectors, including laser projectors.
• NEC Projectors – A mix of LCD and DLP Projectors, although starting with low cost, best known for their smaller and larger fixed install projectors. Big in medium and larger venue applications
• Optoma Projectors – All DLP projectors, and a major player in the pocket projector space.  Some larger venue, but best known for portable and small fixed/install projectors.
• Canon Projectors – A full lineup of LCD and LCoS projectors, but best known for very high resolution models, and superb color, also DICOM capable (good enough to project images of medical films (x-rays, MRI’s etc.)
• Sony Projectors – Primarily LCD and LCoS – they call their LCoS SXRD.  Everything from portables to 4K cinema projectors, the leader offering true 4K projectors with laser light engines. Big in scientific and simulators as well as usual business markets.

Business Projector Resolution

2013 was a year that new shifts in resolution and pricing saw major shifts. Entry level is from $299 to perhaps $599, but 1080p (1920×1080) and WUXGA (1920×1200) projectors started shipping for under $2000 (and even a lot less)!

Lowest resolution projectors today (2017) would still be SVGA resolution (800×600) models can now be found for as little at $299, but most entry level projectors sell from between $399 and $699.

Quicktip: Almost all computers out there are now at least XGA resolution, as are tablets most can work with tablets like the iPads from Apple, and also Android, so for clean, clear, crisp small text and graphics you should be looking to get a projector with XGA resolution or higher.

Lower resolution SVGA projectors comprise a small fraction of US projector sales, and the bulk of those are purchased by schools. In the few years, though, the cost of higher resolution projectors has come down enough ($50 more) that SVGA (other than schools), may finally fade away.  Unless you have a compelling specific need, go higher resolution.

Today your business would benefit from  XGA resolution model or widescreen WXGA projector. Today the trend is mostly higher resolution and widescreen with WXGA slugging it out with the even higher res WUXGA, for domination.

Most 4:3 aspect ratio computers are sold into “legacy” situations, replacing an existing 4:3 projector, where there’s already a 4:3 screen in place.  Switching to a wide screen projector would often require a new screen, and moving the ceiling mount, a lot of extra expense.  If you have a budget of more than $600 a unit, it would be more beneficial to go with WXGA or higher, unless you are “trapped” in a 4:3 world, , with higher brightness, (more lumens). If you have budget and need, you could consider the new crop of affordable 1080p and WUXGA projectors.

In fact, you may seriously want to consider a specialist – mostly A/V dealers whether local or online have sales people who are knowledgeable about what works best, thanks to strong backgrounds in the “projector, plasma display and LCD display” industry. They are far more likely to be able to speak intelligently, and get you where you need to be. Even if you don’t want to know the details, there’s a real advantage to buying from someone who knows the products and issues. BTW, onlineA/V resellers are generally known to charge about 5-7% more than the least expensive PC resellers, Spending an extra $30 to $100 is not a great price to pay, if it gets you into the right product, instead of one that is a poor choice for your specific needs.  Choose Wisely!

Low Cost Business Projectors

Most weigh at least 5 or 6 pounds, and up to 10 pounds, except for the one to three pound pocket projectors which are now just becoming bright enough for projecting to small groups, and in some cases medium sized, as almost all pocket projectors are 500 to 1000 lumens.

What you’ll find with entry level business projectors:

• Limited connectivity
• Most often, they are DLP technology, although LCD projectors are typically only slightly more.  (There are far more DLP models out there, even though most projectors sold are 3LCD.)
• Virtually all offer HDMI
• Monitor out (to drive a computer monitor) is something many entry level projectors lack, especially the more portable ones.
• Audio – typically a single audio input, or maybe two (one computer, one video), the exception again would be projectors designed for the school market, where you may get extra audio inputs.  Portables often have one or two 1 to 2 watt speakers, while more expensive and education focused models typically have at least a single 5 watt speaker and as much sound as a pair of 10 watt speakers.
• Remote controls, some projectors will have credit card sized remotes, most will have “full sized”. Credit card sized remotes usually offer no, or very limited “remote mousing”. They are also typically limited to about a 20 foot range.
• No interactive projectors in the entry level ranges (yet).

Consider the technology while choosing an entry level business projector. Especially, if color accuracy is important, you will need more lumens on a DLP projector to overcome ambient lighting, than would be required of an LCD projector, Why?  Color lumens vs. white lumens.  Our Color Brightness video explains.

Mid-Price Performance Projectors - Moving up from Entry Level to The Sweet Spot of the Market

The hot segment for business projectors is the in the $600 – $1500 range. Resolutions run from XGA up to 1080p/WUXGA!  (and higher resolution) projectors, providing between 2500 and 4000 lumens.. The standard today is about 3500 lumens, but remember that a 20 or 30% increase in lumens helps, but really isn’t a dramatic increase in brightness.

In this day and age, you can now find a goodly number of business projectors up to WUXGA and 1080p for $1000 or less. Many business users don’t need that resolution (or even more expensive 4K).

Some examples of good business projectors at different price points, with some core features:

Moderately priced Business Projectors: $600 – $1500

• Viewsonic PJ559D: MSRP $1279, 2700 lumens, 6.0 lbs., XGA resolution
• Sharp PG-D45X3D: MSRP $2795, 3000 lumens, 3D, lens shift
• Mitsubishi WD390U-EST: MSRP $1999,  Ultra short throw, Cloud networking projector
• Optoma TW610Sti+: MSRP $999, 3200 lumens, 6.9 lbs., WXGA resolution
• Epson W16SK: MSRP $1899, two stacked 3000 lumen projectors for passive 3D
• Hitachi CP-AW250N: Ultra short throw interactive projector, sits inches from screen.

Middle to High Performance Business Projectors

Priced typically from $1500 – to $4000+ Most of these weigh in over 10 lbs (but not all), they start at 4000 lumens but mostly ar 5000 lumens or more, and many offer interchangeable lenses. There are a huge variety interesting features found on some of these projectors that just don’t show up on less expensive projectors. These are definitely not portable projectors unless your idea of portable is perhaps 20 to 50 pounds.

Do you need the features – and the “horsepower”?

Key features found in many High Performance Projectors:

• 4000 lumens or more
• Interchangeable lenses
• Optical lens shift
• Multiple computer inputs
• Multiple HDMI or DVI (digital) inputs
• Power zoom and focus
• Advanced Wireless and wired networking
• Presenting over a network, notifications
• Laser or LED/Laser light engines
• Dual or Quad lamps for 24/7 or maximum reliability
• Auto focus (rare)

Some widely differing examples of projectors in this group of Mid to High Performance projectors:

• NEC NP2250: MSRP $3999, 4200 lumens, 16.1 lbs., XGA resolution
• Panasonic PT-F300NTU: MSRP $2399, 4000 lumens, 13.7 lbs., XGA resolution
• BenQ SP890: MSRP $3999, 4000 lumens, 15.9 lbs., 16:9 HD resolution
• Epson PowerLite Pro G5650WNL: MSRP $3599, 4500 lumens, WXGA resolution

High Performance Business Projectors

Most of these projectors sell for over $4000 (up to $100,000), offer at least 5000 lumens, most have interchangeable lenses, etc. Many offer laser engine (or dual lamp for redundancy) and reliability. Almost all will have optical lens shift, which will also allow two projectors to be “stacked” together to virtually double the brightness. All of these higher performance projectors below offer interchangeable lenses, networking and more:

• Mitsubishi WL7200U
• Panasonic PT-DZ770UL
• Epson Powerlite Pro L1500/1505: MSRP $21999, 12000 lumens, 50lb. WUXGA/pixel shifter, 4K capable

Summary

That should give you a good idea of what your investment dollars will buy, in terms of portability, power, and features. Our best advice – talk with a dealer who knows what they are talking about.

I like to use an analogy to buying a car. If you have $25K for a car, you don’t want to randomly have someone, who knows nothing about your needs, pick out your vehicle. Think about it – that $25K in a car – could mean:

• A two seat sports car
• A nice mid-sized sedan
• A pretty large pickup truck with large cab
• An SUV
• A mini-van

Now one of those is definitely going to work better for you than most of the others. While projectors may not vary as much, there are still significant differences and combinations of features, such as ultra short throw projectors, interactive ones, 3D capable ones, and those with networking and advanced networking projectors.  A good sales consultant can spend 5 minutes asking you the “right questions” and guide you into a “better choice”. For those “sales adverse”, review sites like ours help you make your own choices.  Good ones, we hope.